


Open the Window (Goodbyes May 4th)

by Serrj215



Category: Teen Titans (Animated Series), Teen Titans - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Bbrae Week 2017, F/M, Hospitals
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-29
Updated: 2020-03-29
Packaged: 2021-02-28 21:46:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,188
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23374141
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Serrj215/pseuds/Serrj215
Summary: Everything is in order, and its time to say goodbye a final word with his son.
Relationships: Beast Boy/Raven, Garfield Logan/Raven
Comments: 4
Kudos: 22





	Open the Window (Goodbyes May 4th)

He hated this place. Of course anyone that isn’t walking out with a baby hates hospitals. The florescent lights, and the smell of cleaning products always put him on edge. He couldn’t help but think that this wasn’t a place of healing as much as a place where life ended. This was the place where his Mother died, and now it was going to take his Father. 

He walked in to the hospital room the soft beeping from the machinery and labored breathing were the only sounds. In the bed his father laid asleep. It was hard to see him like this. When he thought of his father he remembered the giant man that held him over his head, and let him mess up his hair and then would act surprised for him when he looked in the mirror. Mark could hardly recognize the slim green figure in the hospital bed. Garfield Logan was never a large man, but the cancer and its treatments had reduced him to less than hundred pounds. His once bright green eyes had sunken into his face. His hair once hunter green was now silver and thin like a threadbare towel. 

“Dad, Can you hear me?”

Garfield Logan’s eyes slowly opened.

“Mark?”

“Yea Dad” Mark forced a smile “how are you doing?”

“What time is it?”

“It’s about four in the afternoon”

“You got here at a good time. If I can get that window open I was planning to take a fly across the bay. I could use some fresh air.” His voice choked out.

“Sure Dad” Mark agreed knowing that he hasn’t been able to change shape for the last year, and for the last month could barely walk. 

“Maybe instead I will turn into a mouse, go along the hallways, tell me do woman still wear skirts? I always liked a nice set of legs.” he said with slow creeping smile. 

“Dirty old man”

“And I am getting older and dirtier by the minute” he laughed. “The good thing about getting old it’s amazing what you can get away with. Most people just think I am confused or senile. My body might be falling apart but I am as sharp as I ever was”

Mark could almost hear _‘Yea somewhere between pudding and warm cheese’_ in his mother’s voice. Marks parents were always like that, always jabbing at each other, verbal sparring. You wouldn’t believe that they had been together since they were teenagers, and married for almost 50 years. One minute they were arguing, the next they would be in each other’s arms.

“Maybe you should stay in this afternoon, it looks like rain anyway”

“And Rae would be pissed if I went out and got a new girlfriend. Well since you’re here then I will” he consented. “Is Sam here? did you bring Rachel?”

“Just me this time”

He looked into son’s eyes “I am that close aren’t I?”

Mark couldn’t find the right words. The ones the doctors chose to use did not offer him any comfort. He couldn’t imagine they would help his father. 

“Mark I raised you not to lie to me” he said taking his sons hand "Also you are really bad at it, and I take that as a sign of good parenting"

“Hours, You might make it to tomorrow morning” Mark said with his eyes closed as if saying them was going to kill him right then and there and he didn’t want to see it. 

“Good”

“Dad? No-” Mark started but his father waved his hand to silence him.

“My affairs are in order. We have all known this has been coming for a while. In a way it’s been a blessing” He said clearing his throat. "Do you remember when my friend Vic passed? Had no will, it was an amazing mess for his girls I was not going to leave that for you and Sam"

Mark didn’t know what to say, he didn’t know what he was going to say to his wife or his daughter, no matter what the Doctors had said the idea that his father was not going to be there just did not seem real. Till now. 

“Dad I really don’t care about your stuff-”

“Mark I am ready.” he stated. “This has been a good life but I miss your mother so much.” his voice was ragged “I can feel it, she is waiting for me. She’s probably going to be angry that I am so late. So I am going to blame you. She could never stay mad at you.”

He was still joking. Mark could almost see his father looking tough his memories like flipping tough a photo album in his head. 

“We are so proud of you, do you know that.” 

“You and Mom were heroes. You guys saved the world. I am just a guy that designs buildings”

“You listen to me.” He said a new hardness in his voice “My whole life has been about beating the odds. I was not expected to live when that monkey bit me. I spent my life putting myself in danger. I have taken on monsters and criminals and supervillains. I have been shot, shocked, burned, stabbed, and beaten to a pulp. My back is a subway map of scars. I have taken on the Devil himself, and I got your mother to marry me.” Another round of ragged coughing followed Mark wondering if he should get help but his father would not let go of his hand.

“But you were it Mark! Your father has DNA alphabet soup your mother is half demon the odds of us having you was winning the lottery while getting hit by lighting. ” Mark could feel his father’s fingers tighten around his “You are the miracle Mark”

Another round of coughing came and a deep intake of breath. 

“We got the chance to raise you, see you graduate, see you marry Sam, have Rachel.” He pointed at his face “Look at me I am a shriveled green raisin. Do you know how many of the people I have worked with didn’t make it to 40?” He closed his eyes and laid back into his pillow. "On top of all that I got to spend nearly 48 years married to the love of my life. Trust me nothing tops all that.“

“I wish Mom was here. She would know what to do” Make said quietly. He could picture her there standing on the other side of the bed. She would put her hands on her husband’s face and she would heal him. Just like she did for him every time he had a scrape or a bruise, or that time he broke his left arm after falling out of a tree. If Mom was here she could fix this! Screamed in his mind. 

“No Mark” His father pulled him out of his head. “I wish she was here too, but this is my time.”

“I miss her Dad, I don’t want to lose you too”

“She at times was cold, impatient, neat freak and stubborn as a mule and I should know, I have been a mule. She was also strong, giving, her mind was as sharp as her tongue. ” His eyes eased closed "She was truly extraordinary and I miss hearing her voice. I can close my eyes and see her in her chair in the bedroom a book in her hands. She would read to me. It was the first things we did that was intimate. It didn’t matter what it was or what language hearing her voice made my head quiet. She would let me lay in her lap as a cat, and stroke my fur and I would listen to her. When she found a passage that got her interested or excited I could hear it warming her words. It was almost as good as her rubbing my fur” 

“Mom was the neat freak?” he asked 

“Every time I leave my socks on the floor, or a dish in the sink I can hear her scold me. Even after she passed.” He laughed “I would sometimes do it just hear that. But I kept the place neat, like she kept it, it made it easier to think she was going to walk through the door again. You know sometimes I would brew up a pot of that tea she loved just to smell it. ”

“I make that tea sometimes. Rachel likes it. She not going to understand this.”

“Children don’t understand death, I am an old man and I barley understand it. ”

“Yeah, but I thought that was because you’re not that bright.” the words slipped out of his lips. He was going to apologize but his father’s chest started shaking with laughter. 

“You are your mother’s son!” Came out between small chuckles. “Tell Rachel that I am going to be with her Grandmother, that we both love her, and she can have the old game station” 

“My daughter lover of retro video games”

“My son the real hero of the family that keeps stone age technology running. Also tell Sam that the library is hers, You mom loved having a daughter in law that loved books as much as she did. I know she will take good care of them” 

“I should have brought them…”

“No, I don’t want Rachel to remember me like this, and she is going to need her mother. Sides I wanted a word with my boy.”

They just sat there quietly, Mark holding onto his father’s hand. 

“Mark?”

“Yea Dad”

“Open the window”

Mark was frozen statue still not sure what to do.

“Mark trust me just open it, the air is stale in here, all I can smell is my old sweat and antiseptic I want to smell the ocean, the rain, please.” 

Mark knew that look in his eye. It was the look he had when he was going to do something nuts. It was the look he had when he pulled him out of school so he could introduce him to the Green Lantern. It was the look he had when he would show up at the house unannounced with toys for Racheal. Or that he and Mom were just going to pick a direction and go and be gone for weeks sending pictures back from their latest adventure.

He also knew that when his father made up his mind about something he was committed. Mark knew that if he didn’t open that window his father would find away. He got up slowly and walked over to the awning window. The pane of glass hinged only on the top was meant only to let air in it only opened a few inches. He stood there taking in a deep breath, taking in the scent of the storm that was brewing outside. 

“Much better” Garfield breathed. "Thank you Mark"

“Dad, you need anything else.”

“Could you go find that Nurse, the young blond one.” Garfield said with a smile. 

“Dad?” he asked wondering if he was making a joke.

“I am serious, my left leg is doing that thing again, she will know what I am talking about.”

“Ok” Mark said reluctantly as he left the room to go to the nurses station. He found two older woman and a young man. None of them knew about a blond nurse working in the ward.

When Mark came back to his father’s room the bed was empty. The window was still open and the staff had no idea where he had gone. Mark didn’t know what to think. That somehow his father was now flying over the water? Or maybe Mom had come to get him. History will remember Beast Boy the green hero that could turn into animals. Mark and his family will, remember Garfield Logan a husband, father and grandfather who made bad jokes, gave his granddaughter pony rides and loved his family fiercely. 

_“Your late”_

_“Mark’s fault!”_

_“No its not, you got too caught up playing with Rachel.”_

_“I couldn’t help it. She’s cute, and she takes after her grandmother.”_

_“She had you wrapped around her little finger. ”_

_“So did her grandmother.”_

_“Azar,I missed arguing with you.”_

_“Mama take me home, and please don’t leave me ever again”._

* * *

This was a story that has been sitting with me for a long time. I was going to do the other prompt from this but when I wrote it out if felt forced. Also this is also my first attempt at something that is not pure fluff. I like to think of these characters as real people. Well real people die, I would like to think they would after a good long life with a happy family. That is why I do love these fanfics, we get to add or expand the facets of the characters that might not be explored in the books or cartoons. Also I think that is why that years later why were still writing about them, these were not cookie cutter characters designed to sell action figures, they had depth. 

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on Tumblr https://serrj215.tumblr.com/post/160333145679/open-the-window-goodbyes-may-4th May 5th, 2017
> 
> Constructive criticism and polite notification of spelling and grammar mistakes are appreciated. Also Ao3 is new to me so If I am missing tags or something let me know.


End file.
